WEBVTT - The witch of Kings Cross 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:08.280 Norton just kept being herself. She just kept being the 0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:11.440 Witch of King's Cross. A nineteen fifty six interview with 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:15.040 The Australasian Post, so to quote, we asked, do. 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.360 You really believe you're a witch? Amaze? She asked, are 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:20.440 you serious? Yes? 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:23.160 Do you believe you are a witch? And she answered, 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:25.640 of course I am. I'm a witch and that's all 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:26.520 there is to it. 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:36.559 I'm Jen Kelly from the Herald Son and this is 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:39.560 in Black and White, a podcast about some of Australia's 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:43.640 forgotten characters. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome a new guest, 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:48.160 Peter Coleman, to tell us a wonderfully strange story about 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:51.879 a fearless woman known as the Witch of King's Cross. 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.120 Her name was Rosaline Norton, and she was a Bohemian 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:02.560 artist who horrified Australian societ in the mid nineteen hundreds. 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:07.960 There were wild tales of blood sacrifices, devil worship, sex, 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:12.680 orgies and satanic rituals. But were they true? Pete is 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:15.120 here to sort the fact from the fiction for us. 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:18.600 He tells Rosaline's fascinating story and many others in his 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:22.680 new book, which is called Australia's Most Bizarre Crimes, and 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:25.720 he joins us. Now, welcome to the podcast. 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:28.039 Pete, thank you so much. It's so great to be here. 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:32.600 Now. Your book is called Australia's Most Bizarre Crimes. When 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:35.240 you were looking around for ideas, you must have felt 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:38.160 pretty lucky when you struck upon this story, because it 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:39.520 certainly is bizarre. 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:45.240 Rosaline Norton is such a memorable and distinctive character from 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:46.360 Australian history. 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:50.280 I absolutely love her. She was a witch, she was 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:51.200 an artist. 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:55.920 She was this controversial figure living in Sydney's King's Cross 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.480 in the nineteen forties, fifties and sixties, in a very 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:03.400 conserved bit of time in Australian history. And she absolutely 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:09.160 scandalized society. And she even led to the downfall of 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:14.520 the career of a prominent conductor as well, so so 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:19.920 Eugene Goson. So it's quite a rich and varied story 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:23.519 of Roselene. But I love her story and I hugely 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:27.359 admire her, and I'm so excited to share her story 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:28.200 with everyone. 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:30.919 I can't wait to hear more. Now take us back 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:33.280 to the beginning of her life, because it sounds like 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.840 there were signs right from the start of her life 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:39.080 that Rosaline was not your average kid. 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:43.800 She was born in a thunderstorm at night in Dunedin 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:47.960 in New Zealand, on the second of October nineteen seventeen. 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:52.960 So she was born with some distinctive physical features, including 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:57.920 naturally pointed ears and two spots on her knees. So 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:02.360 these were the kind of physichysical characteristics that in centuries 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:06.040 past would have been considered witches marks, and they were 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:08.840 physical characteristics that Raslan was quite proud of. 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:11.359 Later in life, she claimed that she. 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:14.839 Was born a witch, but she first realized that when 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:17.400 she was about twelve or thirteen years old. 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:20.480 She claimed that nobody had to teach her how to 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:21.120 be a witch. 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:24.960 She said, in my case, it came naturally and nobody 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:28.120 had to teach me. She was the youngest of three 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.920 girls born to the British master mariner Albert Norton and 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:35.400 his New Zealand born wife. Being up so, her family 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:39.360 emigrated to Sydney in nineteen twenty five, for that's where 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.320 Rosalie would spend the rest of her life. 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.640 She did not enjoy her childhood overly. 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:51.280 To quote her, her upbringing was a generally wearisome period 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:57.120 of senseless shibblous, prying adults, detestable or depressing children whom 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:01.520 I was supposed to like, and parental repat approaches. She 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:06.440 apparently slept outside the house the family home in a 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:11.200 tent for three years and had multiple pets, including a 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:16.240 spider named Horatius, as well as cats, lizards, toads, dogs, 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:17.680 tortoises and a goat. 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:20.960 So she was from a very young age. 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:26.279 Really connected with nature and a died in the wool nonconformist. 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:33.159 She was expelled from her school, Chatswood Girls Grammar, at 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.800 the age of fourteen for being a quote unquote corrupting 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:42.919 influence when she shared what were described as depraved drawings 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:46.760 of vampires and wear wolves with her classmate. So she 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:51.720 was creating mythological images from a young age, which then 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.200 go on to do as an artist throughout the rest 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:57.560 of her life. She then, after leaving school, she went 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:01.880 on to study art at East Sydney Technical College under 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:06.039 the sculptor RAINA hoff Who and he really encouraged her. 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:07.920 And he didn't just encourage. 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:12.320 Her artistic pursuits, he also encouraged an interest in paganism, 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:18.000 which again would go on to define her life. Roselyne, 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:23.680 or her friends called her ROWI worked as in multiple 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:27.320 jobs in Sydney. She worked as a kitchen hand, a 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:32.040 nightclub waite staffer. She worked as a posty. She worked 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:35.960 as a pavement artist and a journalist. So she worked 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:40.440 at the Avangar publication Pertinent, which is where she met 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:45.520 the Sydney bohemian and poet Gavin Greenleys, who was thirteen 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:49.160 years younger than Rosaline. The pair shared a passion for 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:54.160 the coult and they became lovers. Gavin would remain her 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:59.719 companion until nineteen fifty five, when he was institutionalized for 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:03.560 scar It's aphrenia. She was also an artist model for 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:09.120 the famed Australian artist Norman Lindsay and he described her 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:13.680 quote as a grubby little girl with great skill who 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:15.520 will not discipline herself. 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:21.800 She's obviously left her family behind by this stage, but 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:25.960 were they quite strict and were they appalled by her behavior? 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:30.880 Her family was a quite conservative Church of England family, 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:35.039 and I think they were very I'm not sure if 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:37.760 they were scandalized, but I think she was very much 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:41.599 the black sheep of the family and I don't think 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:44.279 they really appreciated. 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:45.400 Her very much. 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:49.400 It's sort of difficult to know in terms of she 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:51.800 doesn't tend to talk about her family much in the 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:55.800 interviews I read so, but I'm yes, I would say 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:59.599 that they were quite scandalized by her behavior. She was 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:04.560 openly bisexual. She had relationships with men and women. I mean, 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:08.160 think about it. This is you know, nineteen thirties, nineteen 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:15.960 forties Australia. And she was also keenly interested in various 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:22.640 occult and mind altering practices. So she was interested in 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:31.640 self hypnosis, psychedelics, pagan ritual Jungian psychoanalysis, Jewish mysticism, Western occultism, 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:35.640 Eastern estheterism, and quote unquote sex magic. 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:38.080 So she was very. 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:43.080 Interested in the work of the controversial occultist Alistair Crowley, 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:47.920 who was a really important figure in twentieth century occultism 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:52.560 and a very controversial figure. She was very interested in 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:57.720 entering altered states, both for spiritual and artistic reasons. So 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:02.440 she would enter trance states to receive visions from the 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:06.200 realm of the subconscious that she would then go on 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:09.440 to draw or paint. There's a great quote from her 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:12.280 where she says, I get a life that holds infinite 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:17.280 possibilities and is entirely satisfying to me in all planes 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:18.640 of consciousness. 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:22.280 And when did she first come to public attention. 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.840 She first came to public attention when she had her 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:30.560 first art exhibition, which was at Roodent White Library at 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:35.280 the University of Melbourne in August nineteen forty nine. She 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:39.880 apparently hitchhike from Sydney to Melbourne to attend her own exhibition, 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:41.520 so they were assuming. 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:44.120 It would be really unusual for a woman to hitchhiked 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:46.760 from Sydney to Melbourne in that era. 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:51.199 It's so funny after reading about rosaline so much, that's 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:53.360 one of the least surprising things that she did. 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:55.400 So I didn't even think about that. 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:58.520 But no, yes, absolutely, they would be incredibly unusual for 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:02.520 a woman to hitchhike Sydney to Melbourne. But the thing 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:06.280 you'll definitely get with Restling Norton is she was fearless, 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:11.320 so she just did whatever she wanted to do. But 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:16.000 the exhibition, the reason it drew public attention, was that 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:22.040 she showcased a series of paintings and drawings of pagan deities, demons, 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:29.120 supernatural entities, often depicted in sexually suggestive poses, So the 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:34.160 work includes such titles as Lucifer and Witch's Sabbath. This 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:38.320 was all extremely controversial for Mensis era Australia, which was 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:43.040 quite conservative of course by today's standards, so it wasn't 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:46.960 really a huge surprise when the cops showed arm, seized 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:50.480 four of the paintings and charged Norton with obscenity. 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:52.679 The case was dismissed. 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.120 Strangely enough, it was dismissed up she had a chance 0:09:56.200 --> 0:10:00.559 to explain her artworking court, so the I just found 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:05.320 her explanation convincing, But she remains this day the only 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.160 artist to ever have had any of her art walk 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:09.840 destroyed by the police. 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:14.559 Oh really yeah, So what was her explanation in court? 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:21.160 She basically explained that the images, as I understand it, 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:28.559 were psychological, mythological. They were not intended to be obscene. 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:35.120 They were intended to represent particularly things like Junian archetypes 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:43.640 and aspects of the human mind, the human experience, drawing 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:50.120 from mythology. So she basically contextualized her artwork into a 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:58.160 larger narrative about mythology, psychology and human experience. But she 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:03.199 did tell the Daily could tellograph afterwards. This figly morality 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:08.800 expresses a very unhealthy attitude. So and even though she 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:12.240 was found not guilty, the controversy called the public's eye 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:18.160 and they weren't about to forget the witch from King's Cross. 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:22.720 So in nineteen fifty one, Roslyne and Gavin moved into 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:26.640 a house in King's Cross. It was one seven nine 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:32.520 Browham Street, which became an epicenter for the Sydney bohemian scene. 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:36.439 So people would go to the house to practice occultism, 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:40.880 take lsd and sexual experiment. There was apparently a placard 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:44.679 on the door which said welcome to the house of ghosts, goblins, 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:51.920 were wolves, vampires, witches, wizards and poltergeists. Norton decorated the 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:55.920 walls with occult murals. And this is a house where 0:11:55.960 --> 0:12:00.600 she set up her so called sex cold so an 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:05.120 altar to the Greek god Pan, So anyone unfamiliar, the 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:08.720 Greek god Pan is a god of nature and the 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:13.880 wild and shepherds and music, and he basically he has 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:17.000 horned legs and he sort of has the appearance of 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:21.800 a man goat, and a lot of people equated Pan 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:25.359 with the image of Satan. And but just to clarify, 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:30.240 even though Roslan was repeatedly accused of being a Satan worshiper. 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:33.920 She was not a Satan worshiper. She her primary objective 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:38.720 devotion was the god Pan. But then things really bleue 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:42.720 arm in nineteen fifty two with the release of her 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:47.280 book The Art of Rosley Norton, which featured her aunt 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:51.600 work alongside poems written by her friend and companion and 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:58.120 lover Gavin. They basically then they start to release you 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.520 know this. The book of art work was seen as 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:06.679 extremely controversial. The Sunday Sun on September nineteen fifty two 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:11.600 ran a piece titled they wanted to Bind It in 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:16.760 bat Skin? Witches Demons on rampage in weird Sydney sex book. 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:22.560 So the article begins, sex symbolism is portrayed, which such 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:26.280 Stark abandoned in a strictly limited edition of an artwork 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.400 just published in Sydney, that an all male staff of 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:33.320 bookbinders was engaged to bind the work. The article alleges 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:35.760 that the book was originally going to be bound in 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:39.599 bats skin, until Norton nixed the idea because she objected 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:42.920 to the killing of bats. The report describes a scandalous 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:46.600 nature of the artwork which featured grotesque quote unquote grotesque 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:50.080 human figures with upper halves of women and lower halves 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:55.079 of men. The images included demons, skulls, serpents, erotic emblems, 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:58.800 and religious symbols, as well as pictorial lampoons of bishops 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:03.240 and other churchmen, including a naked priest. The imagery used 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:07.320 was that associated with the medieval cult of the Witch's sabbot, 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:12.480 so the Sunday Sun honed in one particular image titled 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:17.440 black Magic. This showed a naked woman embracing a panther. 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:23.080 I love this story. The image scandalized Missus D. Woodward, 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:28.880 who was vice president of the Progressive Housewives Association, and 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:32.400 Missus Woodward apparently took one look at Black Magic and 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:34.840 asked the reporter of The Sunday Sun how much the 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:37.920 book costs. She was relieved when she learned that the 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:41.120 book cost eight guineas, which is about equivalent to modern 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:44.040 ossie three hundred and seventy five dollars. 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.240 Three hundred and seventy five dollars. Did you say, yeah, 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:48.960 it wasn't a chip. There's a lot of money. 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:52.040 It is a lot of money, and she is Missus 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:55.320 Woodward was actually really happy about that, because she responded, 0:14:55.440 --> 0:15:00.120 Thank Heavens, price will keep it out of harm's way. 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:04.920 So hilarious, yes, but of course, never one to back 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:09.920 away from controversy, she just never was. Norton agreed to 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:13.320 be interviewed by The Sunday Sun and here's a direct 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:15.840 quay from the article. I just loved the image that 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:20.320 they paint in this bit. Rosalie Norton, herself sitting cross 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:23.680 legged on a couch in King's cross Room, sipping sherry 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:27.560 and smoking cigarettes, disagreed with her critics. She denied her 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:31.920 drawings contained any sexuality and rifled through the pages of 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:35.920 the book until she came to black magic. She explained 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:38.720 that the woman and the panther were merely two aspects 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:42.680 of self, the personal and the impersonal, or, for those 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:47.840 who preferred it, conscious and unconscious. But Norton's explanations, unlike 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:51.240 her cookcase, they didn't keep out of trouble this time, 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:54.560 so she was charged and found guilty of obscenity. 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.520 Her book was banned in New South Wales. 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:01.920 And could only be bored in other Australian states with 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.760 certain pages blacked out. It was also put on a 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:09.880 customs ban and was actually burned by customs officials in 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:10.440 the US. 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:12.480 We'll be back soon. Do you hear what happened to 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:23.560 Rosalie next? So stay with us. So what was the 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:26.680 effect of the ban, because obviously when you ban a 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.560 book that generates huge publicity, did everyone suddenly want to 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:32.160 get a copy of this book? Did it make it 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:33.040 hugely popular? 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.240 I actually don't know what happened as a consequence with 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:38.400 the book. I do know that she I mean, she 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.280 was fined five pounds as well, which was equivalent to 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:44.360 about two hundred and fifty dollars. But what it did 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:48.320 have the effect of doing was basically putting her at 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:53.560 the center of this media storm. So she was basically 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:57.960 at the center of her own satanic panic which and 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:02.120 there was much made about the occult community she was 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:06.560 running in King's Cross. So in the years following her 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:09.719 obscenity conviction, the media was a buzz with stories of 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:14.520 a satanic coult operating out of King's Cross. The Australasian 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:18.800 post around the headline are warning to Australia devil worship 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:22.919 here and so the report featured a photo of Norden 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:26.000 wearing a pagan mask, sitting beside an altar to the 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:29.359 god Pan just in reference to By the way, the 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:32.680 art of roseland Dawndon is still possible to buy copies 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.520 of it nowadays, so if you want to jump on 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:40.640 the internet, they're not cheap, but you can still. 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.280 Buy copies of the book. It's it's in circulation. 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.440 The Daily News published a piece titled sex worship part 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:52.119 of King's Cross Cult, and it claimed that hundreds of 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.600 people are clamoring to join a weird witch cult operating 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:59.879 at King's Cross. According to police, the cult worshiped sex 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:03.879 and took drugs during rituals. A reporter was told that 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:07.760 during rituals, a naked girl is placed before an altar 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:10.879 and a live rooster is slain over her as the 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:14.520 blood palls over the girl's body. The devotees touched the 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:19.040 blood and chant rights. Now, just to be clear, I'm 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:23.800 ninety nine point nine nine percent sure that is not true. 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:28.840 Always denied having any blood sacrifices, and she objected to 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:32.040 harming animals, and I don't think any of that is. 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:34.480 True, but that was what they reported. 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:39.280 When interviewed, she Norton didn't reveal any of the group's practices, 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:43.240 but told the Daily News that quote, so many people 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:44.640 are trying to join the cult. 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:46.240 We've had to fight them off. 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.119 And she admitted that the group took drugs and herbs 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:55.520 of stimulants, but claimed the substances were legal. So in 0:18:56.000 --> 0:19:00.280 nineteen fifty five, Norton's flat was raided by police and 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:03.919 she was charged with committing an unnatural sexual act. 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:06.680 The evidence was a. 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:12.800 Series of photograms showing Gavin Greenley's dressed in ritual apparel 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:15.200 spanking Norton on the bottom. 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:17.400 But apparently ritual apparel. 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:22.280 Well, they would dress up in ritual costumes like robes 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:30.560 and masks to perform their pagan rituals, and so however, 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:34.600 I should clarify these photos were apparently joke photos that 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:38.880 were taken at Norton's birthday party, so they weren't. 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:41.200 Actually part of any real ritual. 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:47.000 Apparently, in court, Norton wore a red skirt and leopard 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:53.639 skin shoes. Norton and Gavin were ultimately quitted again, but 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:58.120 the police which han't kept going and it also extended 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:01.520 to fans of Norton's art work work. So the proprietor 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:05.840 of a King's Cost restaurant was successfully prosecuted just for 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:08.120 publicly displaying her paintings. 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:13.520 Oh that's interesting. Yeah, So was her artwork displayed anywhere else? 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:16.119 I mean we heard about the exhibition in Melbourne. Was 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:19.560 she able to have other exhibitions or were there other 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:22.320 places where her artwork was displayed? 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:27.760 To my knowledge, she didn't have many other exhibitions. I mean, 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:31.040 it was very difficult for her to exhibit her artwork, 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:33.880 particularly obviously after the book ban. 0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:34.800 As well. 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:40.600 Her artwork was brought and displayed by private individuals and 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:45.840 apparently in some businesses, but again it was risky business 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:50.800 associating yourself with Rosalie Norton because her artwork was just 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:55.960 considered so controversial. And then in nineteen fifty six, it 0:20:56.040 --> 0:21:00.120 doesn't stop. She was also embroiled in a scandal surrounding 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:04.360 so Eugene Gusens, who was the director of the New 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:09.040 South Wales State Conservatorium and chief conductor of the ABC's 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:14.760 Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Gousons became involved in Orton's sex colt 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:18.040 in the early nineteen fifties after reading the art of 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:22.320 Roslyn Norton. So obviously it was circulating in some reasonably 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:28.439 prestigious circles. The police learned of Guson's participation in the 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:31.640 cult when they came into possessions of letters he had 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:36.119 sent Norton. Now he had asked Roselyn to destroy the letters. 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:40.760 They were passionate love letters between the two, but she 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:44.320 had hidden them behind her so far rather than destroy them, 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:48.119 and then they were later stolen from her flat by 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:51.600 a tabloid journalists. So on the ninth of March nine 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:55.679 fifty six, Guson's was detained by customs official at Sydney 0:21:55.720 --> 0:22:00.200 Airport and they discovered in his luggage a corner cope 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:06.439 of pornographic material including approximately one thousand illicit photographs, as 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:10.200 well as books, prints and a spool of film. So 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:13.080 then we have on the eleventh of March nine fifty 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:17.240 six the Sunday Telegraph for an article titled big Names 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:22.120 in Devil rights probe, and it reported the following police 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:26.520 investigations have disclosed that black masses and other devil worship 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:30.400 ceremonies have taken place in luxurious homes on the North Shore. 0:22:30.640 --> 0:22:34.040 A banker, a lawyer, one or two radio artists are 0:22:34.040 --> 0:22:38.000 said to be among those involved. Police disclosures following an 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:42.200 intensive Sydney wide check on practicing of Satanic rights. The 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:46.320 extent of devil worship in Sydney amaze police. They're expected 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:52.960 to make shock disclosures soon. So Gooson's played guilty to 0:22:53.040 --> 0:22:56.880 possession of pornography and was fined one hundred pounds, which 0:22:56.920 --> 0:23:02.600 is equivalent to modern four thousands. The media absolutely had 0:23:02.640 --> 0:23:06.960 a field day with his relationship with Norton, and the 0:23:07.119 --> 0:23:11.679 celebrated conductor lost his positions and returned to England in disgrace. 0:23:12.400 --> 0:23:15.240 He never recovered from the scandal and passed away in 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:22.399 June nineteen sixty two. Meanwhile, Norton just kept being herself. 0:23:22.480 --> 0:23:25.639 She just kept being the Witch of King's Cross. A 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:29.119 nineteen fifty six interview with The Australasian Post showed that 0:23:29.359 --> 0:23:33.119 all the controversy had failed to dampen her spirit in 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:36.720 any way whatsoever. So to quote, we asked, do you 0:23:36.840 --> 0:23:38.280 really believe you're a witch? 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:42.080 Amaze? She asked, are you serious? Yes? 0:23:42.240 --> 0:23:44.800 Do you believe you are a witch? And she answered, 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:47.360 of course I am. I'm a witch and that's all 0:23:47.400 --> 0:23:51.679 there is to it. It's worth noting, at the time 0:23:51.760 --> 0:23:55.000 of the interview was actually illegal to practice witchcraft in 0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:59.320 New South Wales, and the law banning witchcraft wasn't repealed 0:23:59.400 --> 0:24:03.600 until nine teen seventy one. Another fabulous quote from Rosalie 0:24:03.920 --> 0:24:09.719 was I have been described as eccentric, decadent, exhibitionist, crank, genius, 0:24:09.880 --> 0:24:14.320 witch freak and so on, both in public utterances and 0:24:14.359 --> 0:24:18.720 in private conversations. Yes, I am all of these things 0:24:18.760 --> 0:24:24.280 and glad of it. She also clarified that she'd never 0:24:24.440 --> 0:24:28.400 attended any ceremonies with blood sacrifices like I mentioned earlier, 0:24:28.920 --> 0:24:33.000 and she'd never drunk bats blood eater, which is good 0:24:33.040 --> 0:24:36.880 to know. The media attention sort of started to die 0:24:36.960 --> 0:24:40.680 off in the nineteen sixties, and she continued to make 0:24:40.760 --> 0:24:44.480 money by selling her paintings, and she'd also cuss spells 0:24:44.480 --> 0:24:47.560 for people, so that was a source of income for her. 0:24:48.320 --> 0:24:48.520 Ah. 0:24:49.280 --> 0:24:52.160 So did she have a shop front in King's Cross? 0:24:52.440 --> 0:24:54.840 No, I don't believe so, not so the best of 0:24:54.840 --> 0:24:57.159 my knowledge, she I think it just ran out of 0:24:57.200 --> 0:25:01.320 her home so people would come to her. So she 0:25:02.000 --> 0:25:03.680 you know what I mean. She was so well known 0:25:03.680 --> 0:25:06.840 and infamous at this point that people would just just 0:25:06.960 --> 0:25:10.800 co to her. But then in the nineteen seventies she 0:25:11.040 --> 0:25:15.199 retreated from public life and by and lunch became a recluse. 0:25:15.640 --> 0:25:19.040 So she passed away from colon cancer on the fifth 0:25:19.040 --> 0:25:23.320 of December nineteen seventy nine at the Sacred Heart Hospital 0:25:23.400 --> 0:25:27.160 for the Dying, which was its Innea St. Vincent Hospital, 0:25:27.200 --> 0:25:32.119 and she died surrounded by nuns, which is quite an 0:25:32.160 --> 0:25:36.680 odd end for Island Norton, but it is. But I mean, 0:25:36.840 --> 0:25:38.879 at the very end, and this is what I just 0:25:38.960 --> 0:25:43.159 love about her. She just maintained her dedication to living 0:25:43.359 --> 0:25:47.240 her life on her own terms. So her final words were, 0:25:47.720 --> 0:25:51.280 I came into the world bravely, I'll go out bravely. 0:25:51.680 --> 0:25:54.359 That's a great quote. She's quite a striking figure to 0:25:54.400 --> 0:25:57.080 look at. And we'll pop some photos of her with 0:25:57.200 --> 0:26:00.480 the story that will accompany this podcast so on the 0:26:00.840 --> 0:26:03.680 hairld Sun website. But if you could just describe what 0:26:04.280 --> 0:26:06.720 she looks at and the kind of clothes that she 0:26:06.800 --> 0:26:07.880 wore would be amazing. 0:26:08.240 --> 0:26:12.280 Yes, So she was a very very striking looking woman. 0:26:12.600 --> 0:26:15.959 As I mentioned, she had sort of naturally pointed ears. 0:26:16.000 --> 0:26:23.280 She had dark hair that she wore in the sort 0:26:23.320 --> 0:26:29.000 of a quite distinctive style. She had a sort of 0:26:29.040 --> 0:26:32.480 gap in her front tooth, and she had sort of 0:26:32.600 --> 0:26:35.840 pixie like features. You might say she seemed to be 0:26:35.920 --> 0:26:40.679 quite a small, slender woman, but broad huge amount of 0:26:40.800 --> 0:26:44.840 presence with her. And again she also apparently had these 0:26:44.880 --> 0:26:50.800 other physical features, including apparently a stretch of skin between 0:26:50.880 --> 0:26:54.720 her arm and her side, which you know, again she 0:26:54.800 --> 0:27:00.320 attributed to her supernatural nature as well. And in terms 0:27:00.320 --> 0:27:04.720